40 Year's of Flavor: How Egg Roll Chen Survived Columbia’s Shifting Dining Scene

From key trends to fundamental details, understand everything about 40 Year's of Flavor: How Egg Roll Chen Survived Columbia’s Shifting Dining Scene with our comprehensive overview.

Columbia's Asian dining scene in the early 1980s rarely strayed from Cantonese-American standards. Chop suey, neon-tinted sweet-and-sour pork, and fried wontons dominated suburban strip malls. When the Chen family opened their doors on Crowson Road in 1985, they recognized a stark economic reality. A pure Taiwanese menu could not survive on local familiarity alone.

They built their business around an approachable exterior. The namesake draw, enormous, crisp, housemade egg rolls loaded with seasoned cabbage, pork, and celery, drew college students from the nearby University of South Carolina, state government employees, and neighborhood regulars looking for fast takeout. These rolls measured twice the size of conventional commercial egg rolls, setting an early benchmark for value. The kitchen hand-rolled hundreds every morning, turning quick-service profits into a financial buffer.

Beneath that conventional takeout counter sat a second enterprise. For immigrants, university academics, and adventurous locals, the kitchen quietly maintained a handwritten lineup of regional specialties. It was this quiet insistence on home cooking that transformed a modest drive-up into an essential Midlands institution.